Despite his unprecedented record of success as head coach of Spain's youth teams, Inaki Saez was tipped by few people as a possible boss of the senior side.

Jose Antonio Camacho's unexpected resignation following Spain's World Cup quarterfinal exit against South Korea in mid-2002 changed all that.

With many of the leading candidates for the job unavailable because of club commitments, the Spanish Federation decided to look within its own ranks and hand the job to the low-profile former Athletic Bilbao defender.

Saez had steered the under-2 Is to victory in the European Championship in 1998, the under-20s to the World Youth title the following year and led the Spanish team to a silver medal in the Sydney Olympics.

Ever since his first match in charge against Hungary in August 2002, the genial, 60-year-old Basque has shown faith in the youngsters who served him so well

in his previous job.

Former under-21 players such as Atletico Madrid striker Fernando Torres, Arsenal forward Jose Antonio Reyes and Real Sociedad midfielder Xabi Alonso have been given their debuts under Saez.

The coach, who has made a

conscious effort to plan for the future rather than look for shortterm results, has not included the 20-year-old Reyes in the squad for Portugal, saying he had not yet reached maturity.

"Reyes is a man of the future for the national side," said Saez, who has retained the core of Camacho's squad and rewarded leading scorer Raul with the captaincy following Fernando Hierro's decision to call time on his international career.

After a promising start Spain made hard work of qualification for the European Championship and Saez had to endure a barrage of criticism for his tactics when his team were forced to go through a playoff against Norway.

In the end Saez proved his critics wrong, his astute selection policy in the return leg in Oslo helping his side to secure a comfortable 5-1 aggregate win over the Scandinavians.

Even more importantly, he has always had the players on his side.

"Weneeda coach like this," said goalkeeper Iker Casillas.

"He stuck to his guns and it paid off. He always puts the good of the team before his own personal interests."

Some pundits still see his role as little more than that of a seatwarmer for a future big name coach. But if Saez can repeat the success he enjoyed with the youth teams he will have few concerns about his future employment.